▶ Apathy Has Become Business as Usual:
A recent study by Public Affairs Pulse has revealed that Americans hold a decidedly unfavorable opinion of the Federal government. The survey, which was conducted in May, took the pulse of 1,604 adults living within the continental United States. The results are a red flag for political leaders: Fewer than 4 out of ten people have some (or a lot of) trust and confidence in their government.
However, there’s more concern for communicators working for the Federal government:
• Surprisingly, 60% of the respondents stated that they have a favorable opinion of large companies and corporations.
• A majority of Americans (51%) believes the U.S. government is wasteful and inefficient.
• More than half of the respondents (52%) said that they believe that government regulations do mo re harm than good, while only 44% believe that regulations protect business and preserve the public good.
Source: Public Affairs Pulse
▶ Content Marketing Rises to the Top: A recent survey of 329 professional marketers revealed that marketers are changing their channel focus in 2013. The survey, which asked about channel priorities, budgets, content, and authorship, found that roughly 35% of respondents are making content marketing their top channel focus, followed by social media (25%), email (10%), SEO (15%) and mobile (9%).
The also study revealed the following:
• Marketing budgets are on the rise, and only 11% of respondents report no marketing budget for 2013, versus 17% in 2012.
• The most represented monthly marketing budget is between $2,000-4,999, which is planned by 21% of the respondents.
• There was a 4% spike among marketers looking to spend $10,000 or more each month, from 15% in 2012 to 18.15% in 2013.
• A significant majority (66%) of respondents believe authorship is an important component of a content marketing strategy. PRN
Source: CopyPress
Media companies’ per-post engagements lead all other sectors, with an average of roughly 20,000, according to an exclusive study for PR News conducted by Simply Measured. Transportation services, not exactly a bellwether for social media, followed media companies, with restaurants coming in third.
This article appeared in the July 22 issue of PR News. Subscribe to PR News today to receive weekly comprehensive coverage of the most fundamental PR topics from visual storytelling to crisis management to media training.